I was doing household chores the other day – clearing dishes, vacuuming, dusting and washing – and I started thinking back to a time in my early adulthood when I first gained knowledge about mindfulness meditation and being in the now. I first learned this technique when I was more religious in my life in my early days (I’m now a secular humanist) – but I never forgot the importance of being in the now. So, as I was doing these chores I began to focus deeply on the tasks at hand and appreciate my own ability to be able to do these tasks that are often thought of as mundane. There are many who can’t even do these things we may take for granted or consider mundane or tedious – many who only wish they could do these types of given tasks.

Although I do not meditate for any spiritual or religious reasons – yet practice mindfulness meditation daily – I recognize how this type of knowledge helps me to calm myself down when I find myself getting anxious, and deal with the many obstacles and worries that can fill each day by using this more rational perspective. Instead of wasting so much time and energy stressing over past mistakes or future what-ifs (that we all tend to do), I try to see the beauty of all of the things around me and appreciate the sensations I can experience in any given moment.

In each moment of focusing on the now I can gain knowledge from each experience – including all my interactions with others. I pride myself on my awareness and ability to deeply listen to other people – but there are still many times when I simply don’t see things or really listen to others because I’m so distracted and focused on something else. These are moments of lost knowledge – not moments of knowledge in the now.

How often do each of us experience moments of lost knowledge on a daily basis? How often do each of us go through our daily events distracted – our minds often whirring with worry about past mistakes or future deadlines – instead of slowing down and looking and actually seeing all that is around us and interacting with others in the now to gain more knowledge in the now?

My sincere hope is that as time goes on, each of us will be able to make these kinds of observations without being so stressed out by outside forces of past mistakes and future deadlines. I hope that we’re all able to slow down and look around us without being anxious or stressed. I hope that we’re all able to appreciate life and living as much as we possibly can by sharing our knowledge and learning from the knowledge of others – in the now.

Our world is so full of people who get cancer or tumors, other illnesses or life challenges – and these people are then forced to deal with such knowledge in the now. Many times, many of these people become the very people who can teach us all about knowledge in the now. If these things happen to us – and of course they do happen to so many of us – I hope we will deal with them well, learning lessons from such people who have been there experiencing knowledge in the now. Certainly, most of these people want to teach us. They don’t want us to have to go where they’ve been – but most do want us to gain knowledge form their experiences.

Have you slowed down lately? Have you tried to see all that’s around you and understand it, appreciate it along with all the people you come in contact with? There’s much more in this world for us to see than we actually see – and each contact with each person is an opportunity to gain knowledge. It’s up to us to make the effort to see it and gain knowledge in the now.

Battles and conflicts can be avoided if we learn to share our knowledge and learn from each other to create cooperative knowledge to make the world a better place instead of fighting over whose knowledge is better.

When I think of my past and all the knowledge I have acquired, I try to focus on turning all the knowledge I have acquired into knowledge for good – into valuable knowledge – and try to continue to use this knowledge for good for the benefit of others to make this world a better place. To me knowledge of life and all of our individual experiences are found in the words: whatever you do, don’t let your own individual knowledge go to waste. Keep using it to make the world a better place.

So, I try to keep thinking of the knowledge that I have already acquired and the life experiences I have shared with others and gained from others, and what is still yet to come.

There is an awful lot of good knowledge in the world. In all of our lives, there have been many, many good experiences. But, I could also make a very long list of all the bad things that have happened in my life as well. What do I do with this knowledge? Do I simply forget it or try to repress it away in my memory, or let it fester inside me with anger – or do I try to turn this knowledge into knowledge for good? I’ve learned from my negative experiences, and I’ve learned to turn them into knowledge for good. This allows me to use my individual knowledge to help others in my life – and in the world. I turn this individual knowledge into knowledge for good because I’m not constantly dwelling on the negative as a victim. I grew up in a family with alcoholic and dysfunctional parents who abused me and inflicted many physical and psychological scars. I could have remained a victim all my life, ruled by the external and internal voices that said I was stupid and worthless. But thanks to the knowledge of others, I grew to recognize my own worth and intelligence – and recognize even the value of such negative experiences in my life – by turning this knowledge into knowledge for good.

There are many unfortunate people and experiences in the world, people unable or unwilling to leave behind the negative things – the hurtful things that have happened to them in their lives – and use this knowledge for good. The hurtful and negative things of the past continue to drag them down and make them bitter, negative and hurtful to others and to themselves. Unless we can turn this painful knowledge into knowledge for good, such knowledge will always hold these people back. This knowledge will continue to hurt them until they can focus on turning all of their individual knowledge into knowledge for good. Everyone can turn their knowledge and life experiences into knowledge for good. Remember, no experience is a negative experience unless you gain nothing from it and don’t share these experiences as something to make your life and the world a better place.

At least half of new knowledge to create social benefit is knowing the value of your own knowledge and sharing it with others. The other half is being open to the knowledge of others. We must share knowledge to get new knowledge for social benefit.